Two well-placed sources at Ohio State University confirmed for The Dispatch this morning that Urban Meyer will be announced next week as the next head football coach of the Buckeyes. But the sources also said final terms for a deal – such as length of contract and financial remuneration – have not been decided, despite recent reports to the contrary. Also, the sources said that though interim head coach Luke Fickell has not been in the loop, he will be taken care of when or if Meyer accepts the job. In what capacity, the sources weren’t sure.

I think Urban Meyer is really starting to change the tide on the rivalry. Hell, people in Ohio are starting to believe him. Never in a million years would I have thought that. Selling game-used jerseys in exchange for tattoos is a good start.

Come on, there are plenty of things to criticize Urban Meyer for and this isn't one of them. He never closed the door on coaching for OSU. The coach-hiring process makes it impossible for those involved not to lie to the media.

If anything, reading between the lines of his comments, made it obvious that he was open to taking the job.

I associate Columbus with either the delicious smell of baking Wonder bread or the hard to identify odor that accompanies the brewing of Budweiser. I think that most who live in this neck of the woods will agree.

life during wartime and crosseyed and painless. Fine by me. Les Miles is the only option that would seriously worry me at this point. Balls of Steel vs. Hoke-a-mania would be tantalizing. Long live the mekons.

ESPN put out quite a few stories about our own 2 recent coaching searches and during them both they were talking exclusively out of their asses the entire time and had no clue what was going on. Meyer may or may not have been in talks with TSIO but after seeing this twice from an agency as credible as ESPN I give very little weight to these rumors being true insight from some guy at Scout, a radio station, and the Columbus Dispatch. They thrive on stuff like this, it's how they make money.

Funny how its "confirmed" he will be announced as the new ohio coach next week but Fickle is out of the loop and will be taken care of " when or if" Urban takes the job. Yeah that sounds like a sure thing to me...

regardless of who's contacting him. Undermining Fickle and adding a distraction for The Game in the hopes that they lose - and are thus justified in finding a top notch coach to replace him. Sneaky, but makes sense.

is not unsettling to the current OSU coaching staff at all. I'm sure they are 100% focused on preparing for Michigan. /s

This is good for Michigan in the short run (a distraction for this week).

What about the long run? As John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run we are all dead." This week is the only thing that matters right now, and winning this week could very well have a positive impact on our performance in future years.

OK, at this point it's most likely true. This isn't Deadspin; it's a major newspaper. We should stop with the denials and rationalizations ("He'll be gone in three years"). We'll probably have to deal with him for the next decade. But he'll have to deal with us, too.

While I'm sure he'll wait for the NCAA, if they get say, a one year bowl ban, but get Urban Meyer, a kid that was already predisposed to go to OSU will likely go there. Why wouldn't he? Every HS kid knows Meyer and what he's done, so I reckon he will overlook a one year ban and stay committed. Of course all bets are off if they get more than a one year ban...

All of the Ohio recruiting analysts have said that Bri'onte has no interest in playing in the spread. I think the perception of Meyer not wanting backs similar to Bri'onte is a little off. He offered a lot of backs that are similar to Bri'onte at Florida. He just never landed any of them. I would love for Michigan to live off tha perception as long as they can though.

Why do you assume that? Does the NCAA regularly give schools a "heads up" about what its punishment will be?

I think this is entirely unrelated to whatever punishment the NCAA will hand out. If it tells us anything, I think it's that Meyer simply wants the job and is willing to put up with probation at the outset.

the NCAA regularly gives a heads up to schools about what their punishment will be, and osu has lot's of connections with the CIF. Remember Pete Carrol skipping town when he heard about the punishments coming.

What about accepting 113 LOI over a four year period. The NCAA has done nothing about it despite the fact that it has given ONE member institute a huge advantage over the rest. Five recruiting classes every four years and weed out (cut) those who don't pan out.

is if this turns into something like Herbstreit and the Miles to Michigan thing. Meyer has already issued statements that he has not been offered. How funny would it be if these reports keep coming out today and Meyer just says forget it.

They could be discussing stuff like ... does he actually want the job, and if his family really wants him to return to coaching. He has a cake deal with ESPN, very low stress and he doesn't work everyday. Going back to coaching, that's a 365 gig .. you can't go half in, and I am sure his family knows that. The stress levels spike as soon as he takes a job, any job. The biggest question has to be - is it really worth it?

I think a bowl ban is coming, at least for 1 year. I still think it would be ridiculous for them to be able to take that this year.

I think clearly they have info that the NCAA is going to be lenient...otherwise, Meyer wouldn't jump at this.

As for the spread...that is an open question, isn't it?

I frankly am excited. I was excited when Hoke was hired, and looking to battle Tressel. I don't think changing Tressel for Meyer ultimately changes the dynamic much...if both schools are good, better for everyone.

The spread offense run by underclassmen with a historically horrible defense does not work in the B1G. The spread offense run by upperclassmen with a good defense, we never found that out (not saying that RRod would have fixed the defense, just that we can't say that it would not have worked)

Im glad hea coaching ohio. Our rilvary has suffered with us not being good enough to challenge them. I want them to be good because we will be better, and when we beat them it will be even better. I hope he is the next John Cooper

It's almost sureal down here in Ohio right now. Usually I am taking a ton of crap from the natives on my Michigan heritage but this year it is dead silent. All I'm getting is the occasional email forward on the Meyer situation but nothing on the game itself. It's like they have resigned themselves to losing and are now sigularly focused on the coaching search and nothing else.

Imagine (not that it will happen) that Ohio wins The Game ... does anyone think that the Ohio players would react in any really supportive way of Fickell? I don't think he would get the Gatordae bath (at least not with any real exuberance) and he definitely wouldn't get carried off the field like Carr. The point is, Fickell doesn't seem to have built the kind of relationship where his players would repsond to this kind of news by wanting to win one for the Gipper or stick it to the Trustees. Some of the seniors may have bonded with him, but none of the really important players. Posey doesn't give a s*** about anyone other than himself and Braxtons interactions with him on the sidelines don't seem particularly friendly.

All I can say is that, if I were a Florida fan, I would be pissed right now at Meyer's sudden rise to a healthy state, but nonetheless, I wish him luck....surviving, that is, with that ticker that he apparently has in that fanbase.

For however long he stays, I am sure he'll do fine, as will Michigan with our staff.

The Urban Meyer who won two National Championships in the strongest conference in college football is our worst nightmare. The Urban Meyer who walked out on Florida twice doing the same at Ohio is a best-case scenario because it would cause at least five years of agony in Columbus.

At any rate, I guess we are going to find out if the spread "works in the Big Ten."

This is like when your big rival gets a game-changing 5* recruit. You have a tendency to want to go all sour grapes on it: "It's just a rumor, and it won't work out anyway, and everyone knows he's just a thug, and . . . " It's cheap and a little pathetic.

Urban Meyer is going to coach OSU. He is an excellent, proven CFB coach. He just is. This is not good news for us, it will make our lives harder than if Fickle stayed or someone else less elite came in.

My biggest concern is not so much Meyer's coaching (our guys can coach just fine) it's his recruiting, especially in Ohio. He is the new shiny object and will be the media's darling. Recruits will flock to the Meyer "brand", especially OH recruits who are predisposed to go there anyway.

What I wanted to see from Michigan at the beginning of the season was for us to "catch fire". To take advantage of the chaos at OSU, and now PSU, to become the it program in the Big Ten.

At the time I defined that as having an 8-9 game winning season, going to a New Year's Day bowl, knocking off someone big in the conference, and having our loses be close and competitive. Those were not outrageous goals, but they would be enough to say Michigan is back.

Well, we are on the doorstep of blowing those goals away . . . 10 wins, BCS bowl, wins over Notre Dame, Nebraska and Ohio State. But we need to take care of business against OSU.

With Meyer coming in, the window of opportunity for us is finite. We don't just want to catch fire, we need to catch fire now. We need to show that we are the elite glamour program in the B1G while Meyer is getting acclimated and working through sanctions. If we can gain enough critical mass in the next 2 seasons, we can go toe to toe with whatever Meyer does in Columbus.

It starts on Saturday. We win that and we are on our way, Meyer be damned.

While recruiting in Ohio is valid concern, it'll be interesting to see how well Urban recruits in Florida and the other southern states. There's a lot of angry and bitter people down there right now with regards to how he left Florida.

when: shortly after the Game, Sunday or Monday, Tuesday at the latest.

He wants to keep the distractions to a minimum, that's not workin' very well. Also, would it be some sort of tampering if he gave OSU some keys to beating Michigan b/c he has cover Micigan in three games, two of them losses?

I don't want Urban at Ohio, but it's a done deal. He'll not control the B1G, but he'll get the lion's share of the media coverage from ESPN and he'll recruit Ohio very well. I think the "spread" thing is highly overrated. Hell, the Patriots run a version of the spread, much like what Michigan did to Florida in the Cap. One Bowl. I see Meyer getting Dunn to stay at OSU, which is bad for us and he'll get a top lineman and WR too. He may not recruit Florida as well based on the reports of bitterness he left behind, but he'll probably lock down Ohio pretty well, that's my biggest concern.

Beating Ohio won't get any easier than it will be this Saturday. If we want to make a statement to recruits in Ohio, this will be the one year to do it. As long as Meyer is there Ohio will be tough to beat. We will get ours, but he will keep Ohio at or near the top in the conference while he's there. It's too bad the NCAA sanctions will probably be very light. It seems Meyer would want details of that before accepting. His quick agreement tells me he "knows" the punishment will be very lenient. So what goes around doesn't always come around.

SB says Dispatch article is inaccurate. As of 4:15 pm Nov 23, the insider report is that OSU and Urban are still far apart on any deal.

NY times says a big factor will be the NCAA sanctions. If so, and if OSU does not meet with the NCAA until Dec. 10, then OSU can expect a significant delay at best. At worst for them, the so-called deal could completely fall apart. Since OSU has placed all their eggs in the Urban basket, they will end up with egg in their face. They will have to give up an Urban coach and look for a subUrban one.